On May 20th, to mark the one-year anniversary of Tsai Ing-wen’s inauguration as President of the Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party’s CCTV broadcasted a statement from the Taiwan Affairs Office attacking Tsai Ing-wen. However, during the broadcast, the female host made several errors in reading the script, even mistakenly pronouncing “祖國 (homeland)” as “兩國 (two countries).” Following this blunder, the CCTV promptly deleted the footage.
Internet users captured video clips showing that around 6:43 p.m. Beijing time on May 20th, the CCTV host of the program “共同關注 (Common Concerns)” read the response given by Chen Binhua, the spokesperson of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, regarding the “recent speeches by the leaders of the Taiwan region involving content related to cross-strait relations.”
A comparison with the speech transcript published by Xinhua News Agency reveals that the CCTV host made several mistakes as she reached the last paragraph. She initially read “阻擋 (block)” as “阻撓 (obstruct),” and then stumbled over the word “祖國 (homeland),” blurting out “兩國 (two countries)” accidentally. Upon realizing the error, she paused for a while before correcting from “阻擋” and encountered another stutter in the subsequent sentence.
The approximately two-minute segment of the news broadcast on CCTV’s official website under the “Common Concerns” section for May 20th has since been removed. The incident of this “news mishap” by CCTV has sparked discussions and ridicule among overseas netizens.
Independent commentator Cai Shunkun shared the video on X, commenting, “The CCTV host had a major slip-up, leaked sensitive information, and carelessly referred to China and Taiwan as two separate countries. It seems like this host will be dismissed soon.”
Other netizens expressed their views:
“It’s not just the host who should be fired, these programs are pre-recorded, and the censors bear more responsibility. Even if CCTV claims it’s ‘live’, it’s on a delay.”
“A single word mistake can lead to a huge disaster, probably only seen in Chinese news.”
“It was already two countries, she just stated the fact!”
“Indeed, it is two countries, and the Republic of China is legitimate.”
On May 20th, marking a year since Tsai Ing-wen assumed office as President of the Republic of China. In his anniversary speech at the Presidential Office, there was no mention of cross-strait relations. Only during the subsequent question-and-answer session did he remark that aggressors are the ones disrupting peace and many countries, including Taiwan, are actually victims threatened by aggression.
Tsai Ing-wen emphasized that as long as there is mutual respect, Taiwan is willing to engage in communication and cooperation with China, replacing isolation with interaction and confrontation with dialogue, moving towards peaceful co-prosperity.